Chapter Text
His mother is the first to see him.
Maria Solace thought the grief of losing Sebastian had long since dulled. At the very least, it no longer defined her. It had been a long time since she’d felt those chains weighing her down, begging her to stay in bed, to disregard her hollowed out life. But her children, the two that remained, needed her more than anything, and she dragged herself back up to care for them. Sebastian may have been stolen from them, but the most important thing was that he had been there, and that he’d lit up their lives for the fleeting moments he’d been in it. She’d always known he was innocent, even before Isabela demanded they reexamine his case after his death.
Even before she learned he was still alive.
The knowledge had ripped a new hole in her chest. How much of his life had she missed? What had happened to him in the meantime? How could she have just carried on, placed a stone over an empty grave, and learned to accept his absence when he was never really gone?
When the men showed up at her door to break the news, she’d hardly believed it. Hadn’t Gabriel been telling her about salesmen who tried to scam money out of older women like her? They showed her a dozen credentials, only a few of which she’d recognized. And then one of the men had played a message he claimed had come from Sebastian. He’d been insistent on it, the man had said as he pressed play on his phone.
Sebastian’s voice sounded scratchier, older, and deeply weary. “Hi, Mama. It’s been a while.” The recording paused, and Maria had to restrain herself from reaching across the table and snatching the man’s phone out of his hands. She could hear soft breaths on the other side. “A lot has happened. I don’t think you’d believe it if I told you. I want you to know that it’s really me, and that…I miss you.” His voice wavered, the sign of a practiced speech beginning to go wrong. “You probably won’t recognize me, and I don’t say that to be dramatic, I mean it’s…” He laughed sourly. “...it’s pretty bad. These people aren’t completely awful, I trust them well enough. I’d like to see you, if you can come.”
Maria signed whatever they told her to sign, anything to see Sebastian again. He was staying (or being held?) at a biomedical research facility by the coast, about an hour’s drive away. She’d insisted on going to see him as soon as she could. The details were vague and the personnel were cagey, but she was told he’d been a victim of illegal attempts at human genetic modification. She felt a pressing sense of unease the day of the visit, as they led her into a nondescript waiting room, dressed in shades of decaying white.
A man stood next to her in a dress shirt and a long coat, watching Maria look around the room and wring her hands. She was too anxious to sit, and grasped for something to focus on besides her own nerves. A few outdated magazines were strewn across the coffee table. The lamp beside the row of chairs was nice. Sort of reminded her of something her sister had in her house.
A woman stepped through a crack in the door, glancing at Maria, and then at the room behind her. She whispered something into the dark space, and a mumbled voice responded back to her. Maria’s heart seized in her chest. The ground tilted beneath her. “Sebastian? Is that you?”
She started towards the door, but the woman held out her hand. “Give him some space. He’s been through a lot.”
Maria nodded. The woman turned to the man standing beside her and said “He wants the light turned down.” The man obliged, flicking the lights off to half the brightness they had been before.
“You ready?” the woman asked.
“I think so,” Sebastian replied. His voice was lower, but she’d recognize the cadence of it anywhere.
The door opened and a long shape unwound from the entryway, towering over her. She gasped as she caught sight of it, staggering backwards. It was something like a giant snake, beginning at a shark-like tailfin and a scaly gray tail. The creature’s body curved up into the upper torso of a man, clothed in a soiled white dress shirt and a ragged brown jacket. A chitinous claw brushed long, oily hair out of the creature’s face. Her son’s face.
“Hi, Mama…” Sebastian said, lifting his hand in a lackluster wave. He attempted a weak smile, showing the barest glimpse of razor teeth.
“Sebastian…” she gasped. It was him, she knew that for certain. Even with his eyes glowing a luminous blue and the color sapped from his skin, she could still trace the lines of his features. The angle of his jaw matched that of the photo of the boy they propped up on a stand next to an empty coffin, during a quiet service that was a well kept secret under the media circus. He smiled just like he did in the picture she still keeps on the end table in the living room. She and Sebastian’s siblings crowd around him, Gabriel’s arm knocking the graduation cap off his head. He smiled like he did then, embarrassed, with one side of his mouth quirked to the side.
Something almost broke inside her. The world split and turned inside out.
Maria took a step towards him, testing his boundaries. “My baby…come here.” She opened her arms and motioned for Sebastian to bend down. He lowered himself down on his tail with deliberate slowness and fit himself into her arms. He relaxed immediately, sinking against her like the most natural thing in the world.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“You couldn’t have known,” he replied in a scratchy whisper.
His head came to rest on her shoulder, and Maria became aware of just how big he'd gotten. Her arms hardly fit around his body. What had they done to him? How was any of this even possible? She shook the questions out of her mind. He wouldn’t want to be questioned now, so she ran one hand through his hair and murmured reassurances to him. “It’s going to be okay. You're home now, and I love you.”
Sebastian bit back a sob. His two thick arms wrapped even tighter around her, and Maria felt something else rest against her side. His hand? But it couldn’t be, she could feel both of them on her back. She twisted around to get a good look, but Sebastian pulled away as soon as she broke contact with him. She caught a glimpse of a third appendage retreating underneath his coat.
“I’m sorry-” he stammered. “I didn't mean to make you feel- uh- I should’ve asked.”
Maria brushed his jacket aside. It was a third arm, with the same claws as his others, but much smaller, as if its growth had been stunted. It still dwarfed her hand in comparison, though. She looked up to meet Sebastian’s eyes, taking his hand in hers. “I was just confused, that's all. You don't ever have to worry about making me uncomfortable. Okay?”
Sebastian’s gaze darted down to his tail curling behind him. “But I’m not- this isn't- look at me. Mama, I’m barely even human anymore.”
“Why does that matter?” she sputtered out. “You're my boy, you're *alive*!” Her voice cracked on the last word.
Maria yanked Sebastian down with as much force as she could muster, crushing him in a hug as if he’d disintegrate if she let go.
“I never want to hear you say those things about yourself,” Maria said, with the familiar conviction of a scolding. “Sebastian, you’re so kind and intelligent, and-” her gaze wandered to his tail, peppered with sliced and sunburst scars. “-and you’ve been so brave. It doesn’t matter what they did to you. You’re human, you’re my son, and I love you.”
Sebastian sighed heavily, a heaving of his shoulders that nearly broke Maria’s hold. “I want to go home.”
“We can do that,” she said, nodding. “We can do that just fine.”